A River of Stone
by XmissingxtoastX
Summary: A follow up to the series, as one was never written by mr. McGreevy and I'm apparently not one to let a sleeping dog (or werewolf) lie. Based more off the book than the TV show. I'm bad at summaries, so read, review etc.
1. Chapter 1

It was easier than breathing and like nothing else in the world. In only a few brief moments, everything changed. First came the fire; an insatiable heat that blazed through every inch of her body, burning away all conscious thought and physical sensation. Her heart pounded frantically, as if it were trying to escape her collapsing form and a vicious wave of euphoria washed over her, threatening to swallow her whole.

Every one of her muscles quivered ecstatically as she neared the inevitable climax that was quickly building, and finally with a gasp she tipped over the precipice, falling deeper and deeper into something far older and more primal than perhaps humanity in and of itself.

She would never forget the first time she'd ever been called by her secret name and the wolf within her clawed it's way out through her skin, how she'd stumbled shakily into her second form like a new fawn taking it's first steps. The way the night bloomed in front of her with new sounds and smells, both blinding and intoxicating; how drunk she'd felt with the sheer power.

That had been several years back, and with every coming and going of the lunar cycle sense, she'd delighted in the calling, and fallen so gracefully into the change, even Sorin had said she made a better wolf than a girl, and he was right; there was nothing she did better, or gave her more pleasure. But from the very beginning, there was something very different about her.

Even when the sun was up, she could remember the song the moon used when it called to her, the way her name hummed through the darkness, anchoring her with the night as if a thin silver chord hung from her very soul, and setting her free only when it was struck in just the right way. At least, that was until she discovered the secret.

It was an accident in the beginning, in a fit of pre-pubescent rage over some stupid thing she could barely remember, she'd simply given in, and threw all of her humanity away, a gift to the wolf in exchange for a relief for all the aforementioned affliction entailed. It was strange in the beginning, forcing herself to hear the call, but despite the overwhelming wrongness of it, it felt right, and after a while, she couldn't stop.

"Adelina Rodica Vasile. Ceea ce am creat?" Sorin had said, pulling her head in between his ruff hands and pushing his angry gaze against her face. She knew she was in trouble when she became not only Adelina, but Adelina Rodica Vasile. Usually Addie was more than enough, and sometimes when it suited him Sorin simply called her "hey you" or "babe" twice less ALL of the name's he'd given her. He'd only ever whip out the Adelina treatment when she'd really earned it, and to say that she'd earned it then would be an understatement of biblical proportions.

It was wrong, and unnatural to change without permission. He told her that she would turn into something different, something that wore her pelt but didn't belong to her. But mostly he told her that nothing came without a price, and sooner or later she would have to pay for her choices.

But as time went on, and nothing appeared to change. It would seem that she really was different, that she'd already payed her price when she was first born into the new strange world of the dark night. That she'd earned the right to her fur when she'd lost the beauty she'd once had to the scars she would wear for the rest of her life.

Even if she wasn't exempt from the rules that governed her kind, it was nearly inconceivable from which direction her up pence would come, at least, that was until from across the only corner store in the small town of Aelbank Colorado, she spotted a young man with dark skin, dark eyes and a dark smile who smelled of wolf and tobacco smoke.


	2. I get knocked down but I get up again

"You got a light?" came a feminine voice from behind his left shoulder, dripping with artificial sweetness that reminded Peter Rumancek of the cheap shitty fast-food pancakes he'd eaten for breakfast and drenched in syrup to hide the fact earlier that same morning. Though as the owner of the voice passed through the glass double doors and out into the warm afternoon sun his distaste melted away.  
With the sun behind her, dancing against her hair and framing her body, she looked like some kind of white trash angel, no older than himself,long tanned legs, a pair of denim shorts that left nothing to the imagination and a black Van Halen tank-top that made it VERY apparent that she wasn't wearing anything underneath it.

"Huh?" he said, scrunching up a good half of his face in an indignant squint against both the bright light behind her, and to make sure she noticed how disinterested he was trying to appear. There was something exceptionally familiar about her, though for after all the years, it took him a while to figure out what it was.

It must have worked, because she looked rather taken aback, opening and closing her darkly lined hazel eyes several times. Internally Peter prickled with satisfaction, it was apparent no one had ever given her a face like that before. He was glad to be her first, and briefly contemplated asking her if it was as good for her as it was for him, but swallowed it back down as she cocked a curious eyebrow in his direction and smirked, like she could read his mind. And quite naturally this didn't sit well with any part of him, especially his balls.

She then flashed him a perfectly wicked smile "Oh, sorry I was just wondering if you have a light I could use, I swear, I'd forget my own damn head if it wasn't attached." She said, gesturing to the lit smoke in his hand. Then she pulled a half-empty pack of cigarettes from the back pocket of her shorts and placed one between her small pouty lips.

"Yeah sure." he said, lifting the zippo in his hand level with his eyes.

As she leaned over to the flame he offered he noticed two things;  
First that he could seen straight down the crudely torn neckline of the tank top, and her nipples were tight from the cool mountain breeze, but second that the entirety of her abdomen was raked with deep ugly scars.

"Thanks" she purred, taking a long drag, and then without asking, or needing permission she sprawled on the bench in the shade right next to him, crossing one leg over the other.

"Long time no see Rumancek" She said finally, passing him a sideways glance "Actually, I didn't think I'd ever be seeing you again after the shit that went down between Sorin and Old Nicolae before..."

..._before he died_ they both finished silently.

"But I guess that's all in the past now" she concluded aloud. "He told me you and Lynda would be showing up this morning...been waiting for you here all day." She offered him a warm smile, but it wasn't returned.

She didn't know what had happened in Pennsylvania, but she'd taken the hint to can up about it from the look Sorin had given her when she'd asked him. But how could she help it? She hadn't seen hide nor hair of Peter or his mother sense she was eight years old, and now that the wind had finally blown them back into her life it was nothing like she'd imagined it.

Instead of the vibrant creature brimming with mischief and life she remembered, Peter looked like a ghost, a boy who'd been thrown to the mercy of some horrible beast and emerged a warrior, victorious but battered and bloody. Drained of whatever had made him himself.

"You look...like shit" she said finally with a heartfelt sigh and trailed a hand through the soft short black stubble that covered his head.

"Little lady, you have no idea" He smiled finally, taking her hand within his own and placing a playful nip on each of her fingers just as they'd done as childhood friends.

With that she laughed and the familiarity between them finally came flooding back "I've missed you Peter" she said, echoing his smile.

"I've missed you too Addie"

"I take it your mom's already back home with Sorin?" She pondered allowed, doubling over to extinguish the butt of her cigarette on the concrete.

Peter made a vaguely affirmative sound and shrugged.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but before she'd actually managed to convey anything, it all became far to trivial; forcing small talk in a gas station parking lot like she'd just met up with a casual acquaintance rather than one of the only friends she'd ever had.

"Come on" she said and sprung to her feet, offering him an outstretched hand.

With downcast eyes, he took it and she hauled him up to her level. With a hard yank on her part, their bodies collided awkwardly before he really understood what was happening and she wrapped her arms around his waist.

He though about resisting, about wriggling out of her grasp and letting her down with some bull-shit story about how he didn't want to be touched, but then the smell hit him, wafting up from her hair and swirling around his face, leaving slow sensual kisses as it went. They say that scent is the sense most connected to memory, and in that moment he knew that whoever they were, they were right.

She smelled just like home...like a million pieces of his childhood flung back into his face all at once, wolf, weed, damp earth and a warm bed.

A soft whine slipped out from his chest before he could stop it, and she lifted her head to look at him.  
There was an acute curiosity behind her gaze and he though she might be getting ready to ask him a question, but instead she lifted up onto her toes and licked the tip of his nose.

He jerked back, and though she released him from her forced hug, she was still smiling, and he realized that he was going to have to get used to her touching him, whether he liked it or not.

"Lets go home" she said and snatched his hand before he could hide it behind his back. Again the forced contact made him prickle uncomfortably, as did the way she instantly expected her home to be his. Everything felt slightly off and it nagged at his Swadisthana.

The short walk through town was as uneventful as ever. Every few blocks Addie would point out something, but he wasn't really listening. Typical small town America, he'd seen a thousand towns like it, and would see a thousand more before he kicked the bucket.

She must have known that he wasn't listening, though she still continued to drawl on. There was even something comforting in the way she seemed to be forcefully ignoring his melancholy mood. For every step he took, dragging both his boots and eyes against the sidewalk, she skipped and wriggled with excitement.

When they'd finally reached the large log cabin at the edge of town she'd moved on from the subject of topography into recent happenings in her life. Something about dropping out of high school. He nodded, but his eyes wandered over the property.

Several old cars littered the overgrown yard and despite the bright sun, candle light shone through the large windows. The whole place, town included had the half dilapidated feel of a tourist trap built in the 70's by bored millionaires latching on to the idea of a retreat in the trees, but then abandoned when the fad of beach houses took over.

"Well, this is it" she said, pulling him from his self-induced stupor. "Me casa es su casa" She spread her arms wide, beaming with reverence.

He followed her up onto the crumbling wood deck and she swung the screen door open dramatically "Honey, I'm home!" she bellowed and went inside, then sprinkled a wonderful impression of _southern bell_ onto her next words "And you'll never guess who I ran into down at the general store! You remember that handsome young man from all those years ago!"

As he moved to follow her in, something seized Peter right in his very core. An inescapable feeling that if he stepped over the threshold into this new chapter of his life, he would be leaving something behind, but he couldn't tell if the emotion that thought brought up guilt or relief.

"Addie, I haven't seen you in years, look how you've grown up!" Peter heard his mother inside, and with that strange feeling still gouging him, he stepped inside.


	3. Gorgeous Nightmare

"Oh good, she found him." Sorin smiled, crossing his arms over his chest, causing the t-shirt that clung to it to creak with strain.

Sorin Delca was a tall broad man in his mid thirties with bright green eyes and long mahogany hair that nearly reached his hips when it wasn't braided tightly in his typical fashion. It could be said (and often was) that he was perhaps one of the most attractive men in Alebank, bulging muscles and sharp exotic accent included.

Even after all of the years of living as his only companion, Adelina had never gotten used to the way passing strangers ogled him, she even became so embarrassed by the attention he drew in her awkward pre-teen years that she'd refused to go out in public with him for over six months. Needless to say, she'd gotten over that as soon as her tits came in.

"Auntie Lynda you old so-and-so!" Adelina said as she reached out to embrace the older woman, though the second she was in range Lynda pinched both of her cheeks and smooshed them mercilessly.

The Romanceks weren't related in any way to Sorin and his _young ward_ as far as either of them knew, but there was a time when Nicolae had considered Sorin as one of his sons, and he even helped pay for his journey into the states. Unfortunately their friendship was compromised several years later, though the circumstances surrounding the disagreement was the closest thing to a 'taboo subject' you could imagine between the members of their make-shift clan.

Even after their lengthy separation, when Lynda had called on the road from Pennsylvania, Sorin hadn't hesitated to invite them into his home...you know what they say about birds of a feather.

"Oh you've gotten so beautiful little lup" Lynda beamed, now holding Adelina at arms length "But it's a good thing I'm here, you're all skin and bones" she paused and teasingly swatted the half exposed skin of Adelina's rear, which rippled pleasingly from the contact. (After watching that, the thought struck Peter, that he would very much like to feel that against his own hand...though after a moment something ugly stabbed him in the belly and he swallowed that thought back down)

"I'll have to work hard to fatten you up" Lynda persisted, obviously oblivious to the girl's already wonderfully Voluptuous figure.

"Well what have you been feeding this one Lynda?" Sorin asked, turning from Lynda to Peter "last time I saw him he was just a pup, good to see you again young man" He extended a large ringed hand in Peters direction.

"Good to see you too" Peter said, and took the offered hand in his own.

"Well, as I told your mother, you're welcome to stay with us as long as you like." Sorin grinned widely, gesturing to the overly furnished living and kitchen space.

The whole house, if you could call it that, was flush with treasures and trinkets of every sort peppered in with the mix-matched furniture, from a long line of polished rocks on the coffee table to the large taxidermy grizzly bear, covered in dust that dominated the whole space, up on it's hind legs with it's paws extended in a fierce snarl.

Without even asking, Peter knew that there was a story behind every item. The whole collection was something only two people who moved all over the country with an affinity for shiny things could have amassed over several years, thrift shop to thrift shop, yard sale to yard sale.

_A Romancek shouldn't be known for his worldly things_ Peter reminded himself bitterly, though for some reason he still ached with loss as he remembered the various half-scorched memories that undoubtedly still layed strewn in the leaves around the burned out shell that was once Vincent's trailer.

"mother fuckers" he hissed under his breath, suddenly angry all over again.

The rest of the afternoon had been hysterically uneventful, filled with small talk as the new patchwork family reacquainted themselves with each other. All the while artfully dancing around the subject of what exactly had brought them together.

Though once the Romancek's meager possessions had been moved from their dusty sudan and into the house, each gypsy drifted off into their own space, eager to be left alone with their thoughts; Sorin to work at the only bar and grill in Alebank, Lynda into the spare bedroom she'd claimed for herself and Peter into the living room, where he lounged in a beat up lazy boy, opposite the bear.

He'd been searching for the remote to the TV when it had caught his eye. He knew it was only a tanned skin stretched over a foam cast but for some reason it's glassy gaze, and face, eternally articulated in rage fascinated him.

Peter guessed it must have been pretty old from the lack of ridiculously life like qualities that were common in modern dead-animal-art. From a distance, it could have maybe been mistaken for something real, but on closer inspection it's eyes bulged in a rather unearthly way, and it's muzzle sagged at an odd angle.

Eventually he became fixated on a patch of fur on the bears leg, that had been rubbed short and was covered in small puncture marks where the yellow mannequin beneath it showed through. Peter smiled as he imagined a tawny colored wolf pup, her ears still floppy and her feet too big, gnawing at it yipping wildly, her tiny bushy tail lashing back and forth.

"His name is Craig" Adelina said when she'd caught Peter staring at the bear.

"Fuck!" he exclaimed, all of his muscles tightening from shock and an angry wave of adrenaline coursing through his veins "Didn't anyone ever tell you that it's rude to sneak up on people?"

"Sorry" she shrugged "It's been a while sense there was anyone here other than Sorin and I...I guess I forgot how sneaky I am" She wrinkled up her long straight nose and laughed as she sprawled across the couch next to his chair.

"It's probably because of these" Peter joked, reaching out and taking one of her bare feet into his grasp.

She let out an elated squeak as he ran one of his fingernails up the grass stained arch, all the way from her heel to the spot where her first and second toes met.

"Come on, that tickles like hell!" she giggled arching her back and trying to kick free. Though she neglected to disclose exactly what spot it tickled her, Peter knew from experience that it was in more than one.

"He was the only thing left here when we moved in." she said several moments later, her stomach still warm from laughing, and it took Peter a while to realize that she was still talking about the bear.

"Sorin didn't like him...probably still doesn't" she continued, her eyes taking on a distant light "But I couldn't stand to see him abandoned a second time, so after he and like, three other guys put him out into the yard, I waited until it got dark and tried to bring him back into the house by myself"

She paused and pointed to the bare carpet under the bear's paws "He used to be on this huge stand made out of polished wood, with metal rods holding him on. It took me three hours, but I finally managed to get him loose with a hand saw and a pair of bolt cutters. Without that thing he was light as a feather. I thought I was pretty hot shit... Sorin said I put in too much work not to be rewarded, so he let me keep him. Best pet I've ever had, nice and cheap to feed."

"I was only 10 then, and it was the most rebellious thing I'd ever done..." She smiled, more to herself than anyone else, after that, rebellion kind of became her thing.

"What kind of name for a bear is Craig?" Peter asked, eyeing her skeptically.

"It was originally Bledri...but then I went through a brief obsession with Escape the Fate a couple years ago. I'm sure I'll change it to something else soon." She shrugged nonchalantly and flipped on the TV.

They both sat in companionable silence, watching something about T-rex fossils when a commercial for the Godfrey Institute for Bio-medical Technologies flashed on screen.

For a long time neither of the spoke.

"This summer, the girl that I loved died." said Peter.


	4. Buried Memories (pitifully short sorry)

He closed his eyes and inhaled several times, leaning his head back.

"The truth is, that we have no idea how they really looked. Dinosaurs could have displayed the same colors that we see in modern reptiles, they could have been an-" A female scientist quipped from the tv screen, but was cut short as Adelina flipped the TV back off.

He could hear her quick intake of breath and readied himself for her questions. But instead of the stream of words he expected, the only thing to greet his anticipation was the click of her teeth as she closed her mouth again, and the creak of the sofa as she layed back down.

The room had become so quiet that he could hear his heart beating...like a tiny man walking through snow.

Inhale

bump bump bump

Exhale

bump bump bump

Inhale

He was surprised with how disappointed he felt by her silence. Not that he'd expected to shock her, he wasn't that fucking melodramatic. Like he needed her fucking attention, he shouldn't have even told her that, and he didn't know why he did. It wasn't like she was going to understand. She was probably freaked out now, maybe she didn't believe him. She probably thought he was some kind of fucking...

He didn't hear her move, but he could feel her warmth as she placed her hand over his on the armrest.

When he finally opened his eyes, he didn't look at her face, instead his gaze fell on their conjoined hands. Her skin was only a shade or so lighter than his, but in the dim light she almost glowed.

"Do you want to tell me?" she asked softly.

He didn't answer, instead he eyed her chipped black nail polish and the distinctive difference between the length of his fingers, and the length of hers.

He also noticed, and not for the first time that she had several freckles on the back of her hand (five to be exact) arranged in a peculiar pattern. It was a cute quirk that wouldn't mean anything unless you knew what you were looking for. But Peter didn't need to be as skilled as Destiny when it came to reading palms to understand what the marking meant.

The first freckle sat just beneath her middle finger, the second and third several centimeters below the first, under both her finger of Jupiter and of Apollo. The last two where even further below the others, closer to her wrist and slightly closer together than the second two.

If one were to draw lines between the small flaws in her pigmentation, the would have formed a pentagram. The mark of the beast.

Peter had the same formation of freckles on his right shoulder...but he'd been born with his...

"Peter?" Adelina asked, her voice even lower than before "Are you okay?"

She was barley whispering and there was an almost melodic soothing tone to her words, as if she where trying to wake a sleep walker. He'd heard her, but something was wrong. Her voice was shaky and hollow, like she was speaking to him from the other side of a window.

"What happened to her?"

Inhale

bump bump bump

Exhale

bump bump bump

Inhale...

"Something killed her." he mumbled.

He'd meant to say more, but without his permission his throat closed, and frustrated, hateful tears pricked behind his eyes. In his mind he stood in the dark bathroom of Vincent's trailer, his mother on the phone '_Oh no, oh no no no, oh no_'

He'd never asked, he didn't want to know all of what happened. He'd just done what had always saved him. He'd left, torn his freedom back from life with his teeth. But often he wished he'd stayed. Not from missing what he'd left behind, but just because he held on to the thought that if he'd stayed, the dreams would leave him alone.

Every night they plagued him; ghosts, and horrible shadows always at the corner of his vision, a mousy girl with blonde hair and luminescent green eyes laying cold in a hospital bed.  
_Blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood._  
A tall dark young man with those same eyes...long sharp incisors piercing flesh, crimson angel wings.  
_Blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood._  
A strange creature bathed in light, entombed in a spotless laboratory.  
_Blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood._  
Ouroboros...no beginning and no end...  
_blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood_ BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD.

"PETER!"

He'd been holding his breath. He didn't know for how long but as Adelina's voice shattered through the half delusional wall his mind had built around him, his lungs ached, filling with fresh air. It was quiet again, he was safe.

Behind him he could hear the soft snuffling coming down the stairs, Lynda must have fallen asleep.

All the color had drained from Adelina's face, but her eyes hadn't left his, even when he wasn't looking at her...even when he'd looked through her. She didn't need to know what he'd seen to understand how heavily it weighed on him. In fact, she could smell it. Heavy and acrid the scent leaked from each and every one of his pores. Fear.

Peter had to swallow down the lump in his throat before he choked on it.

"Her name is...was Letha" He said. His heart was already beginning to slow back to normal, and the fog of thought that swarmed around his thoughts was beginning to dissipate.

It unnerved him though; He'd always had a special connection with the other side thanks to his Swadhisthana. But now it was like something in him had changed, not only could he see more clearly through the veil that separated this world from the next, it would appear that whatever was there could see him too. Even thinking about the dreams had caused something to pounce on him, and he didn't like it one bit.

"Letha?" Adelina asked, he expression softening a bit now that whatever had grabbed Peter seemed to be gone.

"Yeah" Peter said, "Letha Godfrey."

Adelina passed him a skeptical look "you mean Godfrey as in THE Godfreys?"

Peter shrugged, he'd almost forgotten what a big deal that name was, even outside of Pennsylvania.

"Jesus Peter...what the fuck happened to you?" Adelina asked, sitting back against the couch.

And for some reason he couldn't quite explain, he wanted to tell her, about the Godfreys, about Roman and Letha, the Vargulf...Everything.

"You got a beer?" he asked.


End file.
